Nar stared at the floor in a daze. At his side, Kur was similarly quiet.

  The two of them were the last on the male side of the party to go through the quartermaster, who had set up a series of straight, soundproof, muted green barriers to divide a blank room of light gray floor and walls into several cubicles.

  Nar leaned back against the chair, his spine crooked, and almost at the point of falling out of it.

  He didn’t have it in him to sit up straight.

  Watching the others go through their pasts and living their experiences had drained him. Even Kur’s at the end, had been laced heavily with guilt, doubt and the desperation to prove that his choice in leaving his family and workers had been the right one. Or righteous.

  Nar should probably speak to him about it, but at the moment, more than feeling down for not having discovered his affinity, he felt relieved that the others hadn’t seen anything of his own past. Yes, he had told them everything, but he didn’t want them to live it.

  Next time, I’ll come alone, he decided to himself, not for the first time since leaving the assessment.

  He didn’t want the party to go through his past. Nor did he want them to know exactly how it had felt like to go through the things he had been forced through. Or how he still felt about them…

  One of the barriers went soft and pliable once more, just ahead of them, and Nar looked up in between it and his party leader.

  “Next!” a man shouted, pushing out a muscular, thick arm to motion them forward.

  The clawed one, Nar thought. It was the same guy that had called Mul first.

  “You go ahead,” Kur said, not looking up.

  Nar nodded and silently got up, rushing forward before the man could shout again.

  Tuk had taken long enough to move that the guy that had called him had poked his head through to shout again, and fix them with a baleful glare. Nar didn’t want to have the same happen to him, especially not with someone whose arm looked as intimidating as that.

  Nar bent his head as he went through the curtain, and heard the material fall behind him and snap into hardness and into position again.

  “Right. Nar, is it?”

  “Hmmm, yes, sir.”

  The man looked up from his screen and gave Nar a broad smile with a lot of flat, bold teeth.

  His skin looked like Gad’s, scaly, except even tougher looking. It had clearly segmented components that looked like armor of a muted orange. The man only had three fingers on each hand, and each of those ended in a wicked looking, shiny, black claw.

  The entire sentient before him seemed to be made out of muscle and bulk, and when the man told Nar to sit down on the other side of the single desk that divided the space, Nar had to look up into sharp features and completely brown eyes.

  “No need for sir,” the man said. “Save that for your masters and instructors. The name’s Balink, and I’m with the quartermaster’s crew. Nice to meet you, Nar.”

  Nar nodded. “You too, s… Balink.”

  Balink chuckled cavernously, and adjusted himself on his all too small stool, which protested loudly at the weight that had been forced upon it.

  “Right, so… Nar, it says here that you are a melee type, longsword, hybrid DPS/tank?”

  Nar frowned.

  “Well?” Balink asked, when Nar hesitated.

  “Ah, yes, sorry. That’s right!”

  It was the man’s turn to frown. “Are you sure? This will work a lot better if you just tell me if something’s not right.”

  Nar flushed. “I’m sorry! It isn’t a big deal! I just, I always thought my class was a hybrid tank/DPS…”

  “Uh,” Balink said, looking down at his screen. “Have you looked at your Ceremony gains, yet? Says you were down in sick bay yesterday.”

  “Yes. And no, I haven’t looked at them yet.”

  “Hmm… Make sure you do when you can,” Balink said, and tapped at his screen. “We won’t get the updated numbers or skills until you see them first.”

  Nar’s eyes went wide. “You can see my status and skills?”

  “Of course. How else would we be able to teach you? It’s explained in your contract, so make sure you read that too.”

  “Got it,” Nar said, bashfully.

  “And regarding the change of tank/DPS to DPS/tank, that’s a far more important change than just the words being swapped around,” Balink said, tapping away at his screen. “I’ll make a note of it for now, so that the faculty can see it, but you must look at your gains. Today. You probably won’t have time until after the aura class, so make sure you take some time tonight to have a proper look at it. There’s probably a lot of important stuff in there. There usually is, with Ceremony gains.”

  “I will,” Nar promised, nodding at him.

  “Hmmm. Alright, then. Let’s get the simple stuff out of the way first,” he said, tapping on his screen. “Look at your UI. You should have a new icon amongst the ones on the top right corner.”

  Frowning, Nar did as he was told, and found, indeed, that there was a new flashing icon. It was the same symbol that he had seen everyone from the Scimitar wearing. The three triangles, two on top, and one below, with a square surrounding them.

  “Don’t worry, we have no permissions to do anything to your UI other than grant you access to that Scimitar tab,” Balink said. “Go ahead and open it, and read through it. Take your time, and let me know when you’re done.”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Nar blinked away from the long window of text and considered the tab. Currently, all of the options in the menu were grayed out.

  “Done?” Balink asked, catching his movement.

  “Uh… Yes.”

  “Good. It’s all grayed out for now, but check back tomorrow. It should be available by then, and everything is pretty much self-explanatory. As for the touch-screen, there was a bit of screw up and they’ll be delayed for a bit. Your party leader will get them for you when they’re ready.”

  “Got it.”

  Then, Balink brought his hands over the table, and several bundles of clothes appeared atop it. They were all in black and brown, and the silver logo of Tsurmirel shone faintly over the left side of the chest.

  “Wow…” Nar breathed, eyeing the wealth of gear arrayed before him.

  Balink chuckled.

  “Don’t be so impressed,” he said. “Most of it is just normal clothes.”

  And starting from Nar’s left, he enumerated the items on display.

  “Pajamas. These are your sleeping clothes. Make sure you only get in these after you’re clean and when you’re actually going to sleep. You are forbidden from walking around the ship in these, you understand? Unless it's an emergency.”

  Nar’s eyebrows shot up. “Emergency?”

  “You’ll know,” Balink said, with a dismissive wave, and moved on to the next pile of clothes. “These are what you will be wearing every day, unless instructed otherwise. At all times, when outside of your room, these are what you are supposed to wear. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, Balink,” Nar nodded, stiffly, eyeing the set of clothes and the black pair of footwear with double brown strings attached to them.

  What kind of shoes are those?

  The words boots and shoelaces came to his mind, and Nar almost missed the next words out of Balink’s mouth.

  “And finally, this is your combat gear.”

  Nar pried his eyes off the boots and their shoelaces, and considered the utterly black, void like clothing bundle that was arranged before him.

  “Now these are special,” Balink said, laying a hand over the clothes, and then the accompanying pair of boots that came with them. “Like your current Climber’s gear, it has special effects on them. Stats. They are also self-mending, though slowly.”

  Nar stared wide eyed at the black gear.

  “You will only wear these when specifically instructed to, and never at any other point in time. Once you’re done with whatever task or activity requires you to wear these, you will endeavor to remove them at the earliest moment possible. Is that clear?”

  Nar swallowed and nodded.

  “Good,” Balink said, smiling. “And lastly, here’s your last piece of gear. Don’t lose it.”

  He reached over the table with one massive, closed fist, and Nar hurriedly reached forward.

  “A ring?” Nar asked, confused as he stared at the black ring he found in his hand.

  “A storage ring,” Balink explained. “A better one than the one you’re carrying, and with a lot more capacity.”

  Nar frowned at the new ring in his hand.

  Nar spotted the immediate difference right away, other than the ring’s increased stacks and carrying capacity.

  “You can store live creatures in this?” Nar asked, aghast.

  “Non-sentient’s only,” Balink said, matter-of-factly. “And unless they're knocked out, they'll break out of the ring's pull. Also, creatures won't stack, because living beings are always unique. They will be kept in a state of stasis within the ring, exactly the same way as when you first store them, just like anything else. For now, you are forbidden from bringing anything alive to the ship. We don’t want the corridors filled with ravenous, hungry beasts!”

  Balink laughed at Nar’s shocked expression and got up, his head almost reaching the ceiling.

  “I’m going to step away now, and you will change into your new clothes. You know which ones?”

  Nar quickly pointed at the middle bundle before him.

  “That’s right. Store all the rest of the gear into your new ring, and then empty out your current ring and leave it, and everything you have inside of it, on top of the table, including your longsword. I’ll need to have a look at it. Also, I’ll transfer you the knowledge on how to tie your shoelaces. Unfortunately, with us auramancer types, we need to stick to manual for most things.”

  “Uh?” Nar asked, unsure of what he meant by that.

  However, Balink was already halfway out the cubicle through the other side.

  “Hurry up,” he said, and allowed the curtain to snap back into place.

  With a jolt, Nar rushed to do as he had been told to.

  Like Balink had said, the first two sets of clothes didn’t even register in the System as gear, while the last set did, though there was something about activation on them, and the stats showed as unknown.

  Uh, Nar thought. However, he didn’t have time to dally and ponder about it.

  Quickly, not to anger the man, Nar swapped out rings, and changed into the new black and brown clothing that he would soon be wearing for most of his days going forward.

  The material felt slightly rough against his skin, and looking closely, he could see signs of evident tear and wear. But the material was still far better than anything he had ever worn in his life in the cubeplant, even if it was not as soft as his Climber’s gear.

  Nar moved his arms around, noting how the clothes looked to have been built to allow a great deal of mobility and flexibility.

  However, not wanting to incur Balink’s impatience, he didn’t think further into it, and rushed to put his feet into the pair of boots. The tough boots showed scratches and scuff marks, but they were very comfortable on his feet. Far more than the [Climber’s Shoes] he had been wearing.

  Not knowing what to do with the shoelaces, he left them be for the moment and started emptying out his ring.

  There was a knock on the curtain and it went pliable again, though it wasn’t pushed in.

  “Done?” Balink asked from outside.

  “Uhh… Yes!”

  Balink came in and Nar hurriedly continued to lay down crackers and jell-o on the table.

  “Hold up a moment,” Balink said, sitting back down on the complaining stool. “Let me show you how to tie your shoelaces before you trip.”

  He tapped on his screen, and a window popped up in front of Nar.

  “Uh…” Nar hesitated, staring at the window open mouthed.

  “Don’t worry,” Balink said. “If I harmed you in any way, the remainder of my life would be very, very miserable. However, in the future, do be careful about taking in any pieces of knowledge from other people outside of Tsurmirel. Direct mind transferences can end up badly.”

  “Oh… O-Okay.”

  Yes, Nar thought, with trepidation.

  The familiar warm sensation of knowledge spreading into his mind greeted him, and suddenly, he knew exactly what to do with his shoelaces.

  He sat back down and got through it.

  It was a very peculiar sensation, knowing exactly what to do with the two strings, but not having the muscle memory to carry out the task as smoothly as his brain expected him to.

  “Good. Finish up on emptying the ring next. Unfortunately, with these, we can’t wipe the ring and clear its authorizations until it's empty.”

  Nar quickly tied up his other shoe, mentally cursing himself for every mistake he made that forced him to start over, and proceeded to continue emptying the contents of his ring when he was finally done. While he did so, Balink organized it neatly on the table.

  “The Climber’s gear you’re leaving behind. And the crackers and jell-o as well. They’re useless here, unless you want to hold onto them for sentimental value?”

  Nar couldn’t help snorting and Balink burst out laughing.

  “I thought so! Now the sword, then. On the table please.”

  Nar willed the sword to appear into his hand.

  He paused.

  Something was off. Very off.

  “Hmmm. That’s not standard issue,” Balink said. “And I’m guessing the sword wasn’t like that the last time you used it.”

  Nar shook his head, unable to take his eyes off the weapon in his hands.

  “Can you tell me how it changed?” Balink asked him.

  “Y-Yes. Sorry!” Nar said, blinking. “It looks longer… Maybe by a full hand? And it's definitely heavier by a few pounds. And the blade…”

  The once smooth looking blade was now covered in a strange, pockmarked and scarred appearance, and its purple, chromatic, shimmering effect was even more pronounced now, showing a subtle hint of red that hadn’t been there before. The edges of the blade however, looked even sharper than before, if that was possible.

  “Can I see?”

  Another window appeared before Nar’s eyes.

  “Yes,” Nar said, out loud.

  And without him prompting it, his sword’s status appeared before his eyes, hovering over the table in between them.

  “Well,” Balink said, leaning back. “Well, well, well…”

  Unsure of whether he was reading it properly, Nar re-read the information before him. And Balink most likely did the same, for it was sometime before he spoke.

  “This has the makings of a good weapon,” the quartermaster finally said. “A very good one, if you can fix those pathways into something proper.”

  “Me?” Nar asked, surprised.

  “Who else? You were the one who carved them into it,” Balink said, rubbing his chin while staring at the weapon’s status. “Of course, that’s not something for me to discuss, nor for you to worry about until someone from the Blades Hall talks to you about it. So don’t think too much about it, alright?”

  Nar nodded, still looking at the strange weapon before his eyes. It looked almost as though it had been burned and melted by his aura when he triggered the [Strike of the Champion] advanced skill.

  “From what I can tell, it looks perfectly in order,” Balink said, as a new device appeared in his right hand. “But just in case, let me have a look.”

  He waved his left hand off the table and all of Nar’s Climbing stash disappeared.

  “On the table please,” Balink said, patting it.

  Nar did as asked, and followed Balink’s movements with his eyes. The man pointed the flat part of his device at the sword, and slowly passed it over the entire length of the weapon.

  “Nearly four inches longer than a normal [Climber’s Longsword], being just over 43 inches,” Balink muttered under his breath. “The grip is 2 inches longer, in sync with a bigger, heavier weapon. And weighing… 2.64 pounds.”

  Balink leaned back and considered whatever readings his device was showing him.

  “A perfectly in order longsword,” he said, looking up at Nar. “And with that, we’re done here.”

  The big man stood up and Nar stumbled to follow suit.

  “You can take it with you,” Balink said, taping the device against his left palm in an absentminded way, and Nar rushed to store his sword. “There will be a pull-out shutter in your corridor for you to drop your dirty clothes into to get them cleaned. Laundry collection is every Second and Fifth, and you will get your clothes back no later than two days after collection. Questions?”

  “Hmmm,” Nar said. “Second?”

  Before he could ask the question, more knowledge filtered into his mind, bringing with it the names of the days of the week that Professor Thim had either forgotten to teach them or had expected the System to do it for him at some point.

  “Uh… No,” Nar said.

  “Good. Dismissed then. The rest of your party should be waiting for you on the other side,” Balink said, then he grinned. “Good luck and work hard. And relax a little. Sword wielders shouldn’t be so stiff!”

  Nar stared at him, caught by surprise. Then he took a deep breath and eased his shoulders.

  “Thanks, Balink. I’ll do my best.”

  “That’s the spirit! Enjoy your aura class. It’s gonna be eye opening!”

  And with a chuckle, he lifted the curtain for Nar to pass through.

  Outside, he found his party waiting in a similar setup of chairs and empty walls as the one they had waited in to be seen.

  Nar was the last one out.

  “What happened?” Tuk asked. “You were in there forever!”

  Nar shrugged. “Looks like I carved aura pathways into my sword by almost melting it with my aura…”

  “What?” Cen shouted, jumping to her feet. “Show me!”